The attack on Abottabad

The US had been looking at the sprawling compound since at least last September, officials said, and by mid-March President Obama had held a series of meetings of his National Security Council to determine a course of action.

The President gave the go ahead for the operation early in the morning of April 29.

The raid occurred in the early morning hours of Monday. Helicopters carried the US operatives to the compound and they were on the ground for about 40 minutes, they said. No US personnel were killed.

Osama bin Laden
was holed up in a two-storey house 100 metres from a Pakistani military academy when four helicopters carrying US anti-terror forces swooped and killed him.

Flames rose yesterday from the building that was the apparent target of the raid as it was confirmed that the world’s most wanted fugitive died not in a cave, but in a town best known as a garrison for the Pakistani military.

A US official said one of bin Laden’s sons was also killed in the raid, along with three others, but the official did not name the son or the others killed.

CNN reported that the al-Qaeda leader was shot in the head, citing a US congressional source, while Agence France-Presse reported that Pakistani TV channels had broadcast an image said to be of “bin Laden’s face".

Pakistani officials and a witness said bin Laden’s guards opened fire from the roof of the building, and one of the choppers crashed.

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The sound of at least two explosions rocked the small northwestern town of Abbottabad where the al-Qaeda chief made his last stand.

The US said no Americans were harmed in the raid.

Abbottabad is home to at least one regiment of the Pakistani army, is dotted with military buildings and home to thousands of army personnel.

Surrounded by hills and with mountains in the distance, it is less than half a day’s drive from the border region with Afghanistan, where most intelligence assessments believed bin Laden was holed up.

The news he was killed in an army town in Pakistan will raise more pointed questions about how he managed to evade capture and whether Pakistan’s military and intelligence leadership knew of his whereabouts and sheltered him. Critics have long accused elements of Pakistan’s security establishment of protecting bin Laden, though Islamabad has always denied this.

Abbottabad resident Mohammad Haroon Rasheed said the raid happened about 1.15am local time on Monday.

“I heard a thundering sound, followed by heavy firing. Then the firing suddenly stopped. Then more thundering, then a big blast," he said.

“In the morning when we went out to see what happened, some helicopter wreckage was lying in an open field."

He said the house was 100 metres away from the gate of the academy.

A Pakistani official in the town said fighters on the roof opened fire on the choppers as they came close to the building with rocket propelled grenades.

Another official said four helicopters took off from the Ghazi air base in northwest Pakistan.

In 2009, “we identified areas in Pakistan where bin Laden’s chief courier and his brother operated. They were very careful, reinforcing belief we were on the right track," said a senior Obama administration official.

In August 2010, “we found their home in Abbottabad", not in a cave, not right along the Afghanistan border, but in an affluent suburb less than 40 miles [64km] from the capital.

“When we saw the compound, we were shocked by what we saw: an extraordinarily unique compound."

The plot of land was roughly eight times larger than the other homes in the area. It was built in 2005 on the outskirts of town, but now some other homes are nearby.

The residents burned their rubbish, unlike their neighbours. There were no windows facing the road. One part of the compound had its own seven-foot privacy wall. And, unusual for a multimillion-dollar home, it had no telephone or internet service.

This home, US intelligence analysts concluded, was “custom built to hide someone of significance".

Besides the two brothers, the US “soon learned that a third family lived there, whose size and make-up of family we believed to match those that would be with bin Laden. Our best information was that bin Laden was there with his youngest wife."

There was no proof, but everything seemed to fit: the security, the background of the couriers, the design of the compound.

“Our analysts looked at this from every angle. No other candidate fitted the bill as well as bin Laden did," an official said.

“The bottom line of our collection and analysis was that we had high confidence that the compound held a high-value terrorist target. There was a strong probability that it was bin Laden."

This information was shared “with no other country," an official said. “Only a very small group of people inside our own government knew of this operation in advance."

The operation went smoothly except for a mechanical problem with a US helicopter, which was lost, senior officials said. All US personnel were able to leave on other helicopters. The officials would not name the type of helicopter, or the military units involved, or say how many US personnel participated.

“This operation was a surgical raid by a small team designed to minimise collateral damage. Our team was on the compound for under 40 minutes and did not encounter any local authorities."